Shattered
by I Give Headaches To Aspirin
Summary: Spin-off of Empty Room With A Song by death-in-the-orchard. A fight gone wrong ends up with the Anderson family helping a certain delinquent recover both physically and mentally from an attack like nothing he has experienced before in his life.


Gloom and shadow enveloped every form and hid this world from the illuminated city. The creaking of bones, the straining of muscles, the gasping of lungs, and the wild thudding drum of the heart, beating, pulsing blood in every vein, all at once. Diving to the side, the rush of winter air, invigorating when contrasted to the heat of conflict, soothing any aches that were overlooked for the moment.

Vlad smashed his sharp knuckles into a nose and felt the wet blood spurt into the crevices between his fingers before the foreign body staggered away and hit the ground with weakened knees. The blood soaked up the cold air as the fingers splayed out and Vlad spun to catch hold of a jacket. He used the other teen's momentum to help drive his enemy into the black grime of the concrete, the filth marking the jacket on contact. Vlad gave his stunned foe a kick in the gut. Satisfied by the grunt and gasps for breath that filled his ears afterwards, the red eyes darted about for the next assailant, but none offered themselves to him. The enemy was retreating, yelling to one another as they fled.

Vlad peered about in the gloom, observing the victory as he coughed into a bloody hand. He eventually picked out Jake among the other boys. As his steps started forward, they halted and shifted back to the teen he had kicked on the ground. Unable to run away, the injured teen was doing his best to protect himself from the trio that had decided to take advantage of his vulnerable position. Their ring of assault was broken when Vlad snarled, tearing a boy away from his place in the ring. The others stopped, throwing glares at Vlad until they realized who he was. Then they backed down and wandered, hesitantly, away while the red eyes burned. "Pathetic vultures." The pale teen muttered, never looking down at the mute and bloodied boy on the ground. The black, starred converse abandoned him and went to catch up with Jake who was turning a corner, about to be lost from sight.

But, before the pale boy reached the corner, yells started up from the direction the other teens had taken. Vlad heard voices and running feet heading for the back lot of the storage building, made into a natural dead end by the two brick buildings that acted as walls on either side of it. Vlad pivoted, gazing back at the three sides of wall, noticing the teen on the ground as his eyes swept over the area.

His eyes widened as a hand grabbed his shoulder and turned him roughly before something made impact with his head and the last thing he heard were police sirens in the distance before he lost consciousness.

Anderson quickly dried his hair with one of the art towels the teacher had been handing around and walked into the classroom. The rain pattered off of the windows, making a mini waterfall trail down the window to form puddles at the bases.

He was so glad that he was inside at the minute. He didn't know how Vlad could stand walking through the rain to and from school so much. It was…horrible. It felt nasty and stuck to his skin, making it feel cold and damp even after he had dried himself off, wiping the lenses of his glasses free of water too.

He rubbed his arms and looked around. Speaking of Vlad….where was he? There was no sign of the younger teen in the room, and usually he was there before anyone else, sitting at the desk and gazing out of the window, or on that one rare occasion, asleep. He frowned and sat down as the lesson began. He hoped Vlad was okay.

The lesson dragged on without the usual chatter of the other teen. Even if it was mostly insults about his drawing or just generally his size, he surprisingly missed it, even though he had only been sitting there for a short while.

When the bell finally rang, almost deafening the students and making their ears scream for at least a few minutes afterwards, he went to the gym to train for a while and afterwards walked towards his car, ready to go home.

The sky was dark now, the stars glowing dimly next to the bright moon that shone down on the school car park. The pale white light that came from it reminder him of Vlad's skin. They were both just as pale as each other.

He dumped his gym gear into the boot and then slammed it shut, turning around and walking straight into a wall of flesh. His breath caught in his throat when he looked up.

Jack-Bean.

The massive delinquent glared down at him, his eyes black in the dark, the rage and murder showing clearly in the orbs. Anderson was grabbed and slammed harshly into the side of his car. He almost yelped in pain but bit his lip, he couldn't let this man know he intimidated him.

"Where is Vlad?"

He froze. What? How was he supposed to know?

"W-What?" He was slammed against the car again as Jake struggled to keep his temper in check.

"WHERE IS HE!" He may have beaten the shit out of Vlad when he first met him for being annoying, but the runt had grown on him. He felt a rush of warmth whenever he saw the red eyes and black head of hair heading towards him. The teen was one of the only people who didn't see him as a freak; he was one of the only people he could actually relate to. He knew that school was hell for the teen, an almost living nightmare, but so was life. He was left to his own devices after his uncle went into hospital and had no one to rely on apart from Jake when things got rough.

And Jake was working most of the time. He couldn't always be around for his younger friend and it was often a nightmare of his of Vlad going missing when he wasn't looking and then turning up dead afterwards, lying somewhere in a ditch, the spark gone from those unnatural blood red eyes.

He always managed to convince himself that it was just a dream. That Vlad could take care of himself and that it would never happen. He wouldn't let himself get caught and DEFINITELY wouldn't let himself get killed. But this wasn't a dream. This was a sickening reality. The dark haired teen had been missing for a week now, he hadn't been to his apartment and no one had seen him. He had literally, vanished. Jake had rampaged around the entire stretch of downtown, hunting down nearly everyone who had been there and making them tell him whether they had seen the teen by threat of being face down in a river tomorrow morning.

The only person who had seen Vlad had been running away when he caught a glimpse of the red eyes. He said, nearly crying with fear while speaking, that the teen hadn't been alone. There had been others behind him, and then he had run around the corner when he heard the sirens and hadn't seen Hell Dog since.

"I don't know where he is. How would I know? He wasn't in school." Jake growled, letting go of the jacket and turning to leave. "Wait a minute." He reluctantly stopped, looking over his shoulder at Anderson. The green eyes stared at him in a mixture of fear, determination and worry.

"What's going on?" He started to walk again, throwing the reply back as he left.

"Vlad's missing."

Integra took a sip of her coffee before dumping it back down onto the table with a heavy sigh. Caffeine had practically become her life. She didn't have much time to sleep because of her job now. She yawned and started working on her papers again.

She looked up when someone opened the door to her office and stepped in. It was one of the new policemen that had signed up, his eyes looked nervously down at the floor, he was probably nervous about speaking to her after her reputation of being an iron maiden.

"Yes?"

He stepped forward, holding out a file. "There was a gang fight in downtown a few nights ago, we've got a list of the teens there from a few we caught."

"What time did it occur?"

"It was around 11:00pm at night Chief." She nodded and opened the file, looking at the security camera shots. It showed the violent fight the teens had been involved in. They were like animals.

A certain individual in one of the pictures caught her eye. Vladimir. The teen was…..unconscious? Someone had hold of him and there were a group of delinquents behind that one. None of them looked friendly in any way.

"Can you get security footage of this shot please?" She asked, looking back at the policeman. He nodded and was back in a few minutes. "Thank you that will be all."

She waited until he left before playing the footage. Her eyes narrowed as she watched the delinquents run as the police sirens began to get louder, apart from one group. They snuck up behind Vlad and she watched with wide eyes as she watched the replay of the teen being spun around and hit in the head with a baseball bat.

Hard.

She almost cringed as the teen fell to the floor and one of the delinquents picked him up, throwing him over their shoulder and running from the scene. The screen went black as the footage ended.

Anderson looked up from his study books as his mother entered the kitchen. She threw her keys down on the worktop and rested her elbows on it, her head in her hands.

"Mom? What's wrong?" Integra's shoulders were hunched and her hair was ruffled like she'd been running her hands through it. He's often seen her do so when she was stressed. "Mom?" He put a hand on her shoulder.

"There was a street fight a week ago and we caught a few of the teens." She sighed. "They gave a list of people who were there and Vladimir was there. Apparently no one has seen him since. He's just disappeared."

"He's been missing from school too." Anderson said, a worried frown growing on his face. Vlad was tough, but whether he was ill or something worse had happened, it was impossible to tell without finding him first. Then Jake had arrived at the school and his worry and concern had almost turned into full blown panic. "I hope he's okay." He had quickly become quite close to the younger teen and he strongly hoped that he wasn't hurt. But he was sure Vlad could take care of himself.

"I'm sure he's fine Anderson. It's late. Go to bed, you've got school tomorrow." Integra kissed the top of his head and nudged him towards the door.

"But….my study books."

"I'll clean them up. Go."

He walked up the stairs with a sigh and got into bed. He couldn't sleep at first because he was worrying about Vlad. School had seemed so different without the red eyes or the familiar black sweatshirt next to him. It seemed unnatural even though he had only been sat next to Vladimir for a few days. 'He'll be fine. This is Vlad.' He thought furiously. He finally managed to fall into a dreamless sleep with the thought that his new friend would be fine.

Integra lay in bed, restless as her mind kept on running previous missing reports. The ones that popped up into her mind the most were the ones that ended in tragedy. Teens that had been found hurt, committed suicide, or lying in a ditch.

She shivered at the image of Vladimir laying on the side of the road somewhere, passed without a care by people; the end of his short life not an issue for anyone but the people who knew him well. She may have hated the teenager at first, because of what he did to her hand. But then she had come home one day and there he was, wearing her son's clothes and looking just as pale as he had that night four years ago when he was thirteen.

She pitied the boy. He had lost his parents when he was ten, his uncle was in a coma, he always seemed hollow, he was far too thin, and he looked like he was barely able to make it through life. The next time she had seen him, she had just given him a ride in the car without a second thought after she had seen him trudging through the pouring rain, hood up, head down and soaked through to the skin.

Integra snapped out of her train of thought when her phone vibrated on the bedside table. She grabbed it and read the words on the screen. Her eyes flashed and she almost threw herself out of the bed, rushing to get dressed and then slamming out of the door, waking Anderson who stared out of the window as her car sped away, sirens flashing.

Integra hurriedly opened the door to her car and ran towards the alleyway where a few policemen were crowded.

"What's going on here?"

"We found the kid. Someone called the emergency services after they found him lying in the alleyway unconscious. We think he's hurt but he woke up before we could check him over and now he won't let anyone near him." One of the men said, frowning.

She made her way through the police and stood in front of them. "Stop crowding around, you'll only make him more nervous. Just back away and get back into your cars. I'll deal with him."

The police turned and reluctantly walked back to their cars as she turned. Her eyes adjusted to the dark of the alleyway and she saw the teenager pressed into a corner, his face pressed into his knees. Integra slowly approached and watched as he tensed more before taking a deep breath and crouching down in front of him. "Vladimir?" She said softly.

His head rose to look at her and it took all of her will to stop the gasp that threatened to escape her. His lip was split and blood was covering his chin, a gash was across the side of his forehead and had leaked blood into his eye, making them look even more demonic than usual, and there was a dark bruise on his left cheek, it looked like he had been backhanded across the face.

She reached forwards to touch his arm but pulled back when he flinched and recoiled, burying his face in his knees again.

When she looked closer, she could see that there were tears in his clothing and he seemed more filthy than usual, his hair ruffled and tangled. He was shivering as his black sweatshirt was missing and she could see hand marks on his arms where he had obviously been grabbed incredibly hard and what looked like…..rope marks around his wrists where they had cut into his skin.

What had happened to him?

"Vladimir. I'm not going to hurt you. I wouldn't dare. I'm just trying to help. Can you stand up for me?" Vlad stared at her for a moment, his red eyes narrowed and untrusting before he shakily tried to stand. He managed but then started to fall, his legs buckling beneath him.

Integra caught him and held him up. He was surprisingly light, she noticed as he leaned heavily against her arms. He swayed unsteadily where he was standing but then stopped dead when she tried to lead him out of the alleyway.

"Vladimir come on." He shook his head fiercely, barely blinking as he stared at the other police from the shadows. Integra sighed and radioed them to go back to the station immediately. The cars drove away and it was soon silent. She turned back to Vlad.

The teen stared at her and she shivered again, almost seeing her son in his place, it sounded cruel, but she was glad that Vlad was the one who had been missing, he could handle himself. He was stronger than anyone she had ever met in her life and that was really saying something. He was stronger than any criminal she had met. There were the petty thieves, stealing for the money, and then, there were the others. The people who couldn't be reasoned with and didn't commit crime for things like money and reputation, they didn't steal to survive.

The people who just wanted to watch the world burn.

They were nowhere near as strong as this young man standing in front of her, swaying lightly in exhaustion as the wind whistled by through the narrow passage between the buildings. His uncle had protected and taken care of him since he was ten years old and then he was suddenly thrust into a world where he no longer had the luxury of an adult helping him through life. He had to survive on his own, do the lowest of acts, just to keep a roof over his head. He saw the world for what it really was, not for the place filled with joy, happiness and sunshine like they tried to force themselves to believe that it was to ignore the obvious. He was carved out of the harshness of the real world and was a clear example of what survival skills really were. And she respected him for that.

"Vladimir, I swear I'm not going to do anything. Now come on. Let me take you home where you can recover comfortably." She held out a hand and Vlad stared at it, still looking uncertain about whether to go with her or turn and run. He eventually cautiously reached out and grasped her hand, letting her pull him out of the alleyway and into the open streets towards her car. They drove to her house in silence, her eyes straying every now and then from the road to rest on the teen sat in her passenger side, staring out at the road as if something as going attack him any moment. It wasn't surprising that he was on the defensive after what he'd been through. She didn't know exactly what had happened, but the visual evidence of injures was enough. She just hoped it hadn't gone any further than that. She shivered at the thought and focused on the road again as they neared her home.

Integra pulled into the garage and got out of the car, walking around the other side and opening the other door and waiting patiently for Vlad to get out of the car. A pale hand gripped the rim of the door and he slowly came out, his red eyes looking around cautiously like he still didn't trust her. She sighed and slammed the door shut, making Vlad jump. "Sorry." She apologized quietly.

She led him into the house and into the kitchen. He sat down on one of the stools and crossed his arms on the table, resting his head on then. The blond woman paused for a moment before starting to make him some food. After he had eaten, they went into the living room and they sat in silence for a moment whilst she gathered her thoughts.

"Vladimir….do you…remember anything that may have happened over the past week? Anything that may help us find out who did this to you?" The red eyes stared down at the table, not rising once. She watched a small tremor run trough him before he stopped it, sitting still again.

"Vladimir, this is important, we need to know what happened and who did it before this happens to someone else."

"I didn't see who did it."

"Okay, you didn't see, but what did they do to you?"

The teen pulled his legs up to his chest, his eyes haunted and unfocused for a few minutes.

"Vladimir?"

"They didn't do anything."

"I'm many things, but I'm not an idiot, or blind despite me wearing glasses."

"I don't want to talk about it." She decided not to push and sighed, her icy analyzing his injures again. The bruises were dark against his pale skin and the gash on his head looked grotesque against his skin colour. She blinked as she looked and noticed that she had forgotten to tell him to wash off the blood. She was about to order him to go and do so when she aw the lost way he was still staring at her coffee table. She sighed and grabbed his gently by the arm, avoiding the bruises and rope burns there, and dragged him up to the bathroom before making him sit on the side of the bath while she got a washcloth and started dabbing at the gash.

He winced as she rubbed at the tender area, despite how gentle she was trying to be, and it started bleeding again a little as the dried blood flaked away on the washcloth. She bit her lip as the blood started running again and thought for a moment. "Stay here, I'll be right back." She said.

She walked back downstairs to the kitchen and opened one of the cupboards, getting out the First Aid kit they kept there. She turned around and saw a half=asleep Alex leaning against the doorframe, Seras behind him in practically the same state. "Why've you got the First Aid kit mom?" Alex asked, raising an eyebrow. She sighed again, pinching her nose between her fingers before answering.

"We found Vlad tonight." Her two children gasped loudly, suddenly completely awake and alert. Their eyes bright with curiosity and worry. "But…he's not in the best state. I don't know what's been done to him, but whatever's happened to him, it wasn't good."

And without another word, she made her way back up the stairs to the bathroom; her two children following close behind. She opened the First Aid Kit and took out a band aid, taking the backing off it and quickly cleaning the gash on Vlad's forehead before putting it on, apologizing quietly when she pressed a little too firmly on the wound, drawing a hiss of pain from the seventeen year old.

Anderson and Seras paused in the doorway, shocked at the state of their new friend. They took in each bruise, cut, scrape, graze and rope burn with wide eyes. Tears welled in Seras' eyes and she had to duck out of the room to compose herself before they spilled over, Anderson following quickly to keep his anger in check. Whoever had done this to Vlad was sick and twisted. He was barely even a legal adult and now looked even more like he had been through the gates hell and been thrown back.

Integra packed away the rest of the medical equipment once she was done cleaning the rest of his wounds and bandaging them and she saw the way Vlad was swaying, his eyes half-lidded as exhaustion obviously started taking affect. She called Anderson back in and the tall teen picked up the smaller, carrying him into one of the guest rooms and undressing him quickly, putting him in a t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants before pulling the covers over his form and looking down at him once more in worry and protectiveness before flicking off the light and exiting the room.


End file.
